Halo 2 Multiplayer (not campaign): First Reactions

[Zero]

I have a small group of friends(about 10 of us) that get together evey Monday night(for about 4 to 8 hours) for multiplayer Halo. We have 3 xboxes on 3 different TVs. We don't play online much because of the lag. Anyway, our initial reactions were of utter disappointment when it comes to multiplayer. I'm not saying Halo 2 is bad at all. But it's definately gonna take some getting used to with new strategies when using these weapons.
The first thing we noticed is that the Pistol in Halo 2 is no where near as leathal as in Halo. The Pistol was a major staple in combat. But like I said....we haven't played Halo 2 enough to possibly find out how to use these weapons effectively.
It's very frustrating to play Halo(as perfect as it is) and then play Halo 2(expeting it to be the same in gameplay) and realize that you're nowhere near as good playing Halo 2 as playing Halo 1.

Anyway, I was wondering if any others out there play multiplayer Halo and were dissapointed with multiplayer Halo 2 as a first reaction.

Zero

 

[rh71]

It's a rite of passage... and it's good for people who like to learn things. What fun is just coming out and dominating right off the bat ? That wouldn't be much of a new game would it ?

People who went from UT to UT2k3 felt the same way about having to learn things over again. And the weapon changes were huge.

 

[Zero]

You are absolutely correct. That's why I can't say "Halo 2 Sucks" just because it's different. I'm very aware that i'll need to give it some time to get used to again. I was just wondering if others were feeling the same way. I wasn't referring to dominateing right off the bat....I don't want to dominate. I play for competition. I was just expecting the strategy to be somewhat similar...not because I was hopeing...it's just what I was expecting. The competition will always be there, even if I were to play very well off the bat as the skills transcend to every other Halo player.
I've been playing the quake series for years and I remember the gameplay being very similar from 1, 2, to 3. Many people that i knew that played quake 1 were good at quake2...quake 2 at quake 3.
But Halo to Halo 2 is deffintely not the same. But I will definately give it a fair chance before I make any final conclusion on the quality of this game. My friends are more resistant than I am and I'm trying to get them to play it more even though it is different. I'm really expecting to rave about Halo 2 in the next month or 2. Only time will tell! Thanks for the response!

Zero

 

[blurredvision]

I tried hopping into an online game, but it just sits there trying to find a game, and never does anything. So I quit trying for right now and went back to the single player.

 

[Anubis]

i can tell you that the pistol in Halo 2 campaign sucks as well, ive never used it actually, i just picked it up and fired it a few times, its semi auto also so you cant just hold it down and fire

the assault rifle replaces it nicely tho, with its zoom and 3-shot bursts

 

[brentman]

WTF is up with the co-op 2 player view being split vertically instead of horizontally. NO field of view whatsoever. Also kinda sad about the modded button layouts with the weapon 1 and weapon 2 button. I use southpaw and I cant run and jump at the same time. Also flying the banshee is tough, cuz I cant do the tricks or fire the bomb without doing some crazy hand placement.


Oh well, YAY for halo 2!

 

[Kntx]

Originally posted by: blurredvision
I tried hopping into an online game, but it just sits there trying to find a game, and never does anything. So I quit trying for right now and went back to the single player.

It takes like 2 minutes. A long god damned 2 minutes.

 

[gururu]

I've played a lot of syslink halo and I hated the pistol. It was way too powerful. The zoom was too good and it was too accurate. The machine gun on the other hand was too weak. WTF? the needle gun sucked. the only decent guns were the sniper rifle, rocket launcher, and the shotgun. I'm glad that changes have been made, particularly with the machine gun. I like the two hand gun capability now too.

 

[kyparrish]

first impressions of MP (after ~ 45 minutes)...

Gameplay is A LOT different. It basically feels like when you die, you respawn, and hope that you shoot the other guy more times than he can shoot you. Not sure if I like the absence of the health bars, and the overshield. It added a dimension in the first Halo when you knew that a guy must have "one bar" of health after you reamed him, but if you ream him again, his shield will eventually disappear, then he's dead. What I'm trying to say is, every player has the EXACT same health as all the other players. In Halo 1, some might be normal, some might have full shields w/ one bar of life, some might have full live with an overshield. And I haven't seen the shield that makes you go invisible yet in Halo 2.

I like the new Battle Rifle, but wish you could set it to full auto instead of just 3 shot bursts. The Covenant Beam rifle seems pretty cool.

The "party" system in XBL was workign GREAT for me, w/ intermittent audio problems. It was awesome going from game to game w/ the same people, just like you were on the same LAN.

I'll edit with more if I can think of any.

 

[Actaeon]

I LOVE HALO2 MULTIPLAYER.

BUNGIE ROCKS

 

[tranceport]

Halo2 sucks.

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

It's very frustrating to play Halo(as perfect as it is) and then play Halo 2(expeting it to be the same in gameplay) and realize that you're nowhere near as good playing Halo 2 as playing Halo 1.

But the good news is your buddies aren't as good at Halo 2 either. I would think that it'd be good news that it isn't just more of the same, but I'm not a Halo player so what do I know. Gotta have my keyboard/mouse for FPS.

 

[skace]

Hehe, this post reminds me of when Quake2 released. Basically everytime a heavily multiplayer game comes out, the game splits the original fanbase. The things that made the original great have usually been overly focused on and the nitch things about the original that weren't originally intended but ended up being very fun are all ironed out.

 

[rh71]

I played XBL for the first time... and Halo2 multiplayer for the first time with it. What makes a guy with a rifle better than me with a rifle ? Are there hitpoints on you that are more deadly ? I don't know how we can just blast each other at full assault and I always die first...

BTW, I really need to get that mouse/keyboard adapter... I'm not liking these controls...

 

[wicktron]

Placement of hits matter. Headshots, naturally, will cause a faster death than say, a leg shot.
I love running around with the shotgun and killing people in one shot because a) its a medium ranged headshot, or b) its a close range body shot.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

hey where can you get that mouse\keyboard adapter??? I heard about it from a friend for the first time this weekend and I thought maybe Id play with my xbox more if I had it.

 

[skrilla]

I'm not concerned about being as good in Halo 2 as I was in Halo, but I am still very dissapointed in the Halo 2 multiplayer (I don't care about campaign, it looks good but that is not why I got Halo 2.) In my opinion, the multiplayer of Halo was almost as perfect as a console can get. The only thing that I hated, but most people seemed to like, was the way-to-powerful pistol. It was pretty much BS the way you can pick someone off across the Gulch with 3 shots. I have been playing on Gamespy and XBConnect for 2 years now, and I think the only reason people have become so fond of it is because they host games and need some kind of advantage over people who join their rooms. If you have played the first Halo online you know what I am talking about. If you don't use it for the advantage, I won't rip on using it, I just disagree with it.

Other than that gripe, the gameplay in the original was perfect. IMO there will probably never be anything that can top a 2vs2 Blood Gulch Hogs only CTF Match. Yesterday I get Halo 2 and things have changed for the worse.

kyparrish said, "basically feels like when you die, you respawn, and hope that you shoot the other guy more times than he can shoot you." Those are my sentiments exactly. You pretty much just hope you have more bullets in your chamber than the other guy and just hold down your triggers and hope for the best. There is so much chaos and clutter on the screen you just hope you are aiming in the general vacinity. It seems like they took a lot of skill out of the game. And what the hell happened to the gulch? The clone of the Gulch is an insult. It looks like they spent about 2 minutes on developing it.

I think all Halo 2 needed was a change of guns, add a few levels, incorporate XBLive, that is pretty much it. I will say some of the new multiplayer levels are nice. But don't go changing the gameplay that everybody loved. Sorry, this got long but for a game I have been playing for 2 years, one that made me withdraw from a couple college classes and put major stress on the relationship with the girlfriend I am pretty disappointed right now.

 

[Zero Plasma]

I love the MP!I prefected my Halo 1 skills on xbox connect (no lag for me as I was playing on 3.0mb/7xxkb
I went right in to multiplayer and was preety good.I found that two smgs are very good as well as twp neddlers.But all the games I played had 8 players I thought it was 16?
Only thing I didn't like is that theres only one game type you can put a guests in.:0

 

[jamesbond007]

brentman, Co-Op on my system is split horizontally...default settings, AFAIK. It is setup like Halo 1.

Anyways, my first take is that the enemies die too easily. My friend and I played a level and immediately went up to legendary. We absolutely love the campaign...there have been many nights where we'll beat the game on every game difficulty, starting on easy and working our way up to legendary. We won't stop until we beat it on each setting. I consider myself and my friends pretty hardcore Haloers in co-op campaign and multiplayer.

I was very disappointed with the pistol in Halo 2. I adored the pistol because that was pretty much the only gun I used in Halo 1.

Another thing I noticed is that during the movies/cut scenes, the graphics aren't really messed up, but you can see a simplified character appear and then about .25 second later the details of the character appear. It is kind of annoying...as I've always felt with any game, it's not about the graphics; instead, it's all about gameplay and the storyline.

My friend and I had to quit playing last night after 3 hours of play because we felt we were too far in the game...anyone know how many levels there are? I know we are very far into the game...

My $0.02.

 

[EmperorRob]

I agree the pistol was overpowered. The assualt rifle was almost useless in multi- or single-player. I love the new changes. The game plays at a faster pace. The only weapon changes I don't like are the plasma pistols are now almost useless.

Played it w/9 other people for 5 hours yesterday and knee-deep into the campaign. I like it better than Halo 1.

 

[rwmega]

hey where can you get that mouse\keyboard adapter??? I heard about it from a friend for the first time this weekend and I thought maybe Id play with my xbox more if I had it.

God I'd love to know this too. I can't deal with that controller. I'm a PC gamer and when I get started with that x-box controller I feel like a total schmuck. Give me a keyboard and a mouse anyday. Ideas anyone?

 

[kyparrish]

Originally posted by: EmperorRob
The only weapon changes I don't like are the plasma pistols are now almost useless.

Try dual wielding the plasma pistol and SMG. Charge up the plasma pistol, let it home in on the enemy, then finish with SMG. It seems to be VERY effective

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: rwmega

hey where can you get that mouse\keyboard adapter??? I heard about it from a friend for the first time this weekend and I thought maybe Id play with my xbox more if I had it.

God I'd love to know this too. I can't deal with that controller. I'm a PC gamer and when I get started with that x-box controller I feel like a total schmuck. Give me a keyboard and a mouse anyday. Ideas anyone?

god you guys suck, FIRST link on google
http://www.lik-sang.com/info.p...=5438&lsaid=322441

anyway i set it up today its badass, i need a headset now

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: kyparrish

Originally posted by: EmperorRob
The only weapon changes I don't like are the plasma pistols are now almost useless.

Try dual wielding the plasma pistol and SMG. Charge up the plasma pistol, let it home in on the enemy, then finish with SMG. It seems to be VERY effective

a needler and a plasma rifel pwn j00

actually the needler and anything else is a awsome combo

dual needlers is just insane and it sounds cool as hell when you fire them on loud ass 6.1 setup

 

[EmperorRob]

Originally posted by: kyparrish
Try dual wielding the plasma pistol and SMG. Charge up the plasma pistol, let it home in on the enemy, then finish with SMG. It seems to be VERY effective

I did that but I haven't seen the plasma shot home in. I've tried it a number of times and I don't think the plasma's overcharge has any tracking or heat-seeking anymore. I think it's just a straight shot, which is what I don't like.